Market Wrap - week ending 7/11/2014

We had an interesting week in the market.  Although we stayed fully invested, the smaller caps and leaders had a fairly tough week, yet the larger caps once again felt little pain.  I have to say that this week’s decline shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that follows the market religiously as we simply moved up a bit too fast over the past month and some steam needed to be let off.  Similar to a steam train, when pressure builds … it needs to be let out OR you’re going to have a nasty explosion … the pressure can’t continue to build forever (just as we can’t continue going straight up forever).  Of course, time will tell whether the current decline is a simple “pressure release” or something more dangerous. 

Personally I don’t like how aggressively the smaller caps and leading stocks broke down, yet with the rest of the market holding up and in particular watching technology stocks hold up stronger than the smaller shares … my fears are calmed a bit.   Yet, with this strong decline in the smaller issues, and such a divergence in the market I have a feeling we have more downside ahead of us, but for now our signals stay pointed to the north … fully invested with expectations of higher prices ahead. 

As I mentioned above, some decline is fine and quite honestly welcomed, so for now we stay invested and just watch and wait to see if the declines broaden (affecting more companies) or if it stays narrow (only affecting the riskier positions).

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

On a personal note, if you haven’t had a chance to check out my book, please check out the “look inside” feature at Amazon here … http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1499245823/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1499245823&linkCode=as2&tag=randmaur-20&linkId=NFV5VUZYKSLNVXMS

Market Wrap - week ending 6/27/2014

Another productive week in the market.  In fact, I want to keep this report short since really not much has changed since last week.

We had two really strong “tests” this week with a negative reversal on Tuesday, where the market spent the morning in positive territory, then the rest of the day giving up all the gains and then some.  At the close it looked ominous, but the next day we completely reversed the downward move and closed at a new high.  The second test came yesterday with a strong decline in the morning and a complete intraday reversal to close near break-even.  Clearly there is support, as every time the market starts to break down, buyers come in and stabilize things.

For now, the market continues to act quite well.  In fact, it scares me a little that I have nothing to complain about J.  The market is shrugging off any bad news that comes out, and just steadily chugs higher … which obviously is wonderful for our pocket books.

More so, the rise we have seen over the past few weeks is the type I like to see, a very slow and steady move up with multiple days in between of consolidation.  When the market moves up too fast too quickly, things get out of whack, buyers dry up, and eventually the market needs to ‘reset’ or correct, but over the past few weeks the upward move has been very gradual, not euphoric, which is ideal.  Slow and steady wins the race, and for the stock market this type of slow movement usually means more upside to come.

For now, we stay fully invested with little cause for concern.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

On a personal note, if you haven’t had a chance to check out my book, please check out the “look inside” feature at Amazon here … 

Market Wrap - week ending 6/20/2014

The market continues to act well.  Although we technically closed up for the week, I don’t really look at the week as positive from a performance perspective, but rather positive from a consolidation point of view.  We have sort of a resting period occurring which will lead the way to better opportunities shortly.

Many times when the markets get out of whack (one group of stocks performing significantly better (or worse) than the others, there comes a point in time where the indexes eventually have to get back in sync with each other.  As you know from previous posts, the S&P500 and Dow Jones has been basically flat to slightly down since the beginning of this year, while the riskier Russell 2000 and Nasdaq fell pretty substantially (down 10%) over the same time period.  This divergence between the indexes eventually needs to be dealt with, and this is what I see occurring now. 

Over the past 2-3 weeks, we have seen the stocks in the S&P and Dow make very small gains, while the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq stocks have been on a tear trying to catch up.  So, we have the larger caps basically waiting, while the smaller caps are quickly trying to come back.  This is very productive behavior.

What I expect to happen from here, is that we will first need a very shallow correction, but not anything to be afraid of.  Just a buying opportunity.  Basically all the data points look very strong, but we have quite simply moved up too much too quickly in the smaller cap stocks and we just need a short time to pause and build confidence again.  There are many buyers that still want to get into the riskier assets, but are waiting for a pullback since the prices have gotten a bit elevated at the moment.  We have what is called an “overbought” situation, and we simply need to pullback to ease this tension.

Once this occurs, (which I expect to start next week and last 1-2 weeks), things look quite positive from here (barring any unknowns).  I expect over the next month or two that we will be into new high ground on all indexes.

Bottom line, it appears we are seeing very positive consolidation occurring in preparation for a longer term move up.  Our short term indicators are looking a bit stretched and indicate a mild pullback is imminent, but medium and longer term … everything still looks honky dory.

For now, we stay fully invested with little cause for concern.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

On a personal note, if you haven’t had a chance to check out my book, please check out the “look inside” feature at Amazon here … http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1499245823/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1499245823&linkCode=as2&tag=randmaur-20&linkId=NFV5VUZYKSLNVXMS

Market Wrap - week ending 6/13/2014

The market continues to act well.  Although we technically closed down for the week, we aren’t seeing any medium or longer term warning signs.  A small pullback is certainly expected (and welcomed) after such a strong runup over the past month.

Yesterday we had a strong decline on increased volume which does create a small amount of concern.  With that said, all our indicators still signal more upside from here.  I think yesterday was just a byproduct of the Iraq situation, which certainly could continue to create fear in the market but today’s action really showed that the fear was short lived and not indicating a longer term trend. 

We also certainly could point to the low volume of this entire upside move over the past month, and get nervous over this lack of buying volume. Although this does create some concern, our shorter term indicators are very bullish regardless.

Bullishness sentiment is again at an all time high, which can indicate we are nearing a top again, but as I have mentioned in the past … sentiment indicators are secondary in nature and as a result not incredibly reliable.

Leading stocks are once again … leading, with the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 outperforming since the bottom of the last correction was formed in mid April.

For now, we stay fully invested with little cause for concern.

On a personal note, if you haven’t had a chance to check out my book, please check out the “look inside” feature at Amazon here … http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1499245823/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1499245823&linkCode=as2&tag=randmaur-20&linkId=NFV5VUZYKSLNVXMS

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

Market Wrap - week ending 6/6/2014

The market seems to have finally officially moved out of correction mode this week.  If you’ve been following our weekly emails, you know that the S&P500 and Dow Jones have been acting well for over a month, but the smaller cap and technology stocks have been showing their unpopular states, yet this week that all changed.  We finally have the leading stocks acting like leaders … with high volume breakouts or at the very least base building occurring in higher volume positive days.

Certainly our analysis showed last week things were looking quite positive and as a result, we entered the market on Monday and have been invested fully since then.

Euphoria and complacency are at all time highs right now, which could play a factor in the coming month, but for now being invested is clearly the right place to be.

On a personal note, if you haven’t had a chance to see my book, please check out the “look inside” feature at Amazon here.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

Market Wrap - week ending 5/30/2014

The market continued to act quite well this week, and certainly is looking much healthier than it did just two weeks ago.

Still significantly down from its’ high made in February, the Nasdaq has recovered more than half of its decline and it is finally showing a small gain for the year.  The riskier Russell 2000 is still in the toilet, but has made great progress this past week in stabilizing and become more ‘quiet’.  As I have mentioned in the past, time heals wounds in the market … and seeing the sideways action as the Russell 2000 has done this week is a great sign that fear is easing.

Obviously the larger caps are still acting beautifully with the S&P 500 and Dow Jones moving into new high ground for the week. 

Things are definitely looks much better, hence the reason our longer term strategy entered the market early in the week.

It is nice to see a lengthier correction play out as we have over the past few months.  A good correction allows the market to reset and continue upward … so I am happy to see this one stretching out for as long as it has.

On a personal note, I am excited to say my book, Buy and Hope was officially released this week. Check it out at Amazon here, I have included a nice chunk for free using the 'Look Inside' feature.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

Market Wrap - week ending 5/23/2014

This is going to be a quick one since … yet again not much has changed our cautious outlook since last week’s alert.

The market continued its rebuilding process and things actually are looking much healthier than the past few weeks.  The smaller cap and growth oriented stocks are still struggling, but less so this week.  The past few days were a bit harder to gauge since it is the week before a holiday which lowers trading activity significantly and makes it more difficult to use historical comparisons, but looking at individual stocks we are definitely seeing riskier stocks starting to get some attention again, which is a good sign.

The larger caps are still holding up well.  Although the S&P has yet to make any money since late February, it also hasn’t lost any.   The Dow tells a similar story, not making a dime for 2014, but also not losing any either.  This lack of selling on the larger caps is certainly a good sign so far, we see lots of larger issues consolidating the gains of 2013 and doing what is called ‘base building’ which is a healthy ‘time-out’ for the market. 

As I mentioned last week, any time the market goes sideways for long periods of time is generally a sign that rebuilding is occurring and usually that leads to more upside for the market, so although I'm not certain the market is quite done repairing itself, I certainly like how it is acting these days.

We still need the smaller caps and leading stocks to participate in this rally attempt if it is going to survive and they are looking better this week, although I'm not 100% convinced quite yet. 

As you saw above, our medium term strategy did enter the market this week, showing a bottom in the market was made, but our two other strategies are still in a holding pattern choosing protection over risk at this point.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 5/16/2014

This is going to be a quick one this time since … yet again not much has changed our cautious outlook since last week’s alert.

The Nasdaq and smaller caps are still in the doldrums, ALTHOUGH the Nasdaq is respecting its’ most recent low that was made about a month ago.  The smaller cap stocks are not looking as good though … making a new low yesterday.  Both indexes are clearly still struggling.

The larger caps are still holding up well.  Although the S&P has yet to make any money since late February, it also hasn’t lost any.   The Dow tells a similar story, not making a dime for 2014, but also not losing any either.  This lack of selling on the larger caps is certainly a good sign so far, we see lots of larger issues consolidating the gains of 2013 and doing what is called ‘base building’ which is a healthy ‘time-out’ for the market. 

Any time the market goes sideways for long periods of time is generally a sign that rebuilding is occurring and usually that leads to more upside for the market, so although I don’t think the market is quite done repairing itself, I do like how it is acting these days.

As I’ve mentioned in the past, we certainly need the smaller caps and leading stocks to participate in any upcoming rally attempt and so far they are not cooperating. 

For now, we continue to wait and watch for signs of strength in the coming week. We might have already put in the bottom of this correction OR are close to a bottom at this time, but acting cautiously still is the best course of action.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 5/9/2014

Yet again … Not much has changed our cautious outlook since last week’s alert.  The Nasdaq and Small Cap Russell 2000 spent the week in a decline losing roughly 1.5% for the week, while the S&P500 and Dow went basically sideways with no gain.

We continue to have a very unique situation in the market where the smaller more growth-oriented stocks are feeling the effects of a correction down roughly 10% for the year, while the larger companies have basically not declined at all and are sitting close to multi-year highs.

Most of the action now is in defensive stocks and the energy sector, which are not the type of stocks that generally lead a sustained rally. The fact that quality growth stocks are doing badly says a lot. Companies like Twitter, AOL, Groupon, Zullily, FireEye, Whole Foods are all down more than 20% in the last two days from missing their earnings expectation, where normally the impact from an earnings miss would be less severe.

Many full-time investors are starting to compare this bifurcated market to what we saw in 2007.  Although I personally can’t imagine that we will have another 2008 in the near future; larger corrections certainly do start this way … with growth oriented stocks going into a decline months before the larger stocks even show a hint of a decline.  Small corrections generally happen quicker … they don’t take as long to setup, and the market generally moves more in step with all companies equally taking a hit at the same time.  Whereas larger corrections usually take longer to start since the large institutional investors are slowly moving their money from riskier smaller companies to larger safer ones.  This process can take months to complete.

Bottom line, for now … watching from the sidelines is the most prudent behavior.  As you already know, all of our strategies moved fully to cash over a month ago, so we have nothing to worry about if the market continues down.  We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and if things improve we’ll quickly be back in the market.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 5/2/2014

Again … Not much has changed our outlook since last week’s alert.  Although the week was constructive and positive from a performance point of view, the longer term outlook still looks questionable, albeit better than last week.  Although the market has stabilized and in fact recovered nicely so far from the decline of the past 6 weeks, we still have leading stocks severely underperforming.

In fact, the greatest gains over the past few weeks have been in income and blue chip stocks; recent breakouts include Procter&Gamble, 3M, Exxon Mobil, Wal-Mart Stores and tobacco firm Lorillard.  All incredibly strong companies, but certainly not leading stocks from a growth perspective.  Clearly, investors are still being risk averse, looking for safety over growth.

The smaller cap, more risky stocks topped in early march and have been declining ever since, with the Nasdaq down roughly 10% from the top nearly 2 months ago.  Leaders are supposed to lead, and the current risk-averse nature will not propel the market to new highs over the long run until this occurs. 

As I mentioned last week, looking over history, there has never been a time where the market has moved on to new sustainable highs without the smaller caps leading the way.  We might get to new high ground, but in order for it to hold … to be sustainable, we need to see these riskier leading stocks acting well and leading again.  Bottom line, the large investors need to be interested in investing in the entire market, not just in the safe companies for a long term rise to occur. For now, this is just not happening, so a defensive posture still makes sense.

Typically mild corrections last no more than six weeks, so we technically could be at the bottom now, and will shortly head back up, but the jury is still out for now … until we see a decent inflow of funds, I see no conclusive evidence that the worst is behind us.

As you already know, all of our strategies moved fully to cash a few weeks ago, so we have nothing to worry about if the market continues down.  We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and if things improve we’ll quickly be back in the market.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 4/25/2014

This report will be a short one, since not much has changed our outlook since last week’s alert.

We started the week with decent gains on Monday and Tuesday only to spend the next three days giving back all the gains and then some.  We have a clear bifurcated market where the largest losses are again in the riskier smaller cap stocks and safer sectors like tobacco and utilities are doing well.

The Russell 2000 lost 1.2% for the week, while the Dow only lost 0.3%.  Depending on where you are invested, you probably have a very different outlook, with the Russell 2000 and Nasdaq down over 7% from the high made in early march, while the Dow and S&P 500 are only down 2%.

Although the pain has been minimized in the larger stocks, this ‘split’ market isn’t a great sign for the longer term outlook. Each time the Nasdaq takes a hit like it did today (down 1.7% for the day), it chips away at the confidence of the bulls which over time can cause them to be more cautious keeping their money on the sidelines.  Eventually with this lack of demand, will have a wide spread effect … OR hopefully enough time will go by that institutional investors will decide to start investing again which will allow the market to move up.

As I have said for a few weeks now, with the current uncertainty in the market and lack of demand, the best place to be is on the sidelines, protected.  Until the Nasdaq and smaller-caps take part in the recovery, we quite possibly have more downside to experience.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 4/18/2014

Not much has changed our outlook since last week’s alert.  Although the week was constructive and positive from a performance point of view, the longer term outlook still looks questionable.  Although in the short-term there are buying opportunities, the market still looks broken.

Leading stocks have broken down and continue to underperform the larger, more stable stocks.  They need more time to warrant an investment.  The larger, safer stocks are acting well, mostly moving sideways instead of declining in value, showing a clear ‘flight to safety’ approach by the institutional investors.  

The smaller cap, more risky stocks topped in early march and have been declining ever since, with the Nasdaq down roughly 10% from the top nearly 2 months ago.  Leaders are supposed to lead, and the current risk-averse nature will not propel the market to new highs over the long run until this occurs. 

Looking over history, there has never been a time where the market has moved on to new sustainable highs without the smaller caps leading the way.  We could get to new high ground, but in order for it to hold … to be sustainable, we need to see these riskier leading stocks acting well and leading again.  Bottom line, the large investors need to be interested in investing in the entire market, not just in the safe companies for a long term rise to occur. For now, this is just not happening, so a defensive posture still makes sense.

Typically mild corrections last no more than six weeks, so we technically could be at the bottom now, and will shortly head back up, but the jury is still out for now … until we see a decent inflow of funds, I see no conclusive evidence that the worst is behind us.

As you already know, all of our strategies moved fully to cash a few weeks ago, so we have nothing to worry about if the market continues down.  We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and if things improve we’ll quickly be back in the market.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 4/11/2014

Another nasty week in the market with unfortunately no end in sight.  Yesterday and today the three indexes that were holding up the strongest (Dow Jones 30, S&P500, and the NYSE) all broke down and made new lows.  In fact, what a difference only one week made … last Friday the S&P 500 made an all-time high intraday, then collapsed 4.3% over the past 5 trading days. 

Whereas the above indexes didn’t look as weak until this week, the Nasdaq has been struggling for awhile now.  Yesterday it fell over 3% making it the worst 1-day price drop in 2 years.  The Nasdaq topped roughly a month ago and has dropped 8.5% since then, the same with the small cap Russell 2000.  Leading stocks and the smaller riskier stocks have shown stress for most of March, which is normal in a market topping pattern, where the larger institutional investors move their money from riskier positions into larger, ‘safer’ positions.  So, for now we have a very ‘normal’ topping pattern playing out.

Most corrections are contained within an 8% drop from the previous high, and then the market stabilizes and moves higher, and yet the Nasdaq has fallen over that level in the past month … which can imply that we have more downside to go.  Intermediate term corrections are usually contained between 8% and 12%, so we either need to immediately move higher starting Monday OR one can expect us to drop another 4% before testing support.  I expected a bounce around the Nasdaq 4000.00 level and we closed right at that level today, so we likely see a bounce from here early next week.  We certainly are overdue for a bump up, but how strong that bounce will be, will tell us a lot about the next few months in the market.

Right now, the only place to be … is on the sidelines, NOT invested in the market, taking a protective stance, which is where we will remain in the short-term.  As you already know, all of our strategies moved fully to cash a few weeks ago, so we have nothing to worry about if the market continues down.  We will continue to monitor the situation very closely and if things improve will quickly be back in the market, but for now we remain in the safety of cash.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 4/4/2014

This week was a bit nasty, we saw a traditional fake-out which caught many investors by surprise.  In fact, even the daily investment newspaper Investors’ Business Daily, which is usually pretty good at getting a gauge of the market, on Tuesday changed their Market Outlook from ‘Uptrend Under Pressure’ to ‘Confirmed Uptrend’, only to reverse their decision today to ‘Market in Correction’.

It was a wild week for sure. From Monday to Wednesday the Nasdaq rose almost 3% (in three days), then yesterday and today it sold off hard … losing over 3.5% (in only two days).  The small cap Russell 2000 did exactly the same thing, gaining 3.6% in the first three days and losing it all yesterday and today.  Leading stocks and technology oriented stocks have been hammered over the past two days.  This certainly is not what you want to see in a healthy market. 

The NYSE, S&P500 and Dow Jones have been holding up better than the others, with all of them making a very small profit for the week, BUT these indexes have done quite poorly since the start of the year.  This serves as continued confirmation from my previous comments over the past few weeks that a defensive rotation was occurring with large institutional investors clearly moving their funds away from riskier small caps into larger (safer) companies.

All indexes have been struggling since the start of the year, with the S&P 500 the only one that is eking out a small gain year to date.

Are we in for a larger decline?  Larger market declines take time to start … usually a few months of iffy action before the market finally tops and breaks to the downside.  We could be going through this ‘starting’ phase right now, but it is a bit too early to tell.

I certainly don’t like this bifurcated market, where the leaders are lagging and the defensively oriented sectors outperforming, but we are at a place on the charts where I expect value-oriented investors to jump in which should buoy the market in the short term. 

We are sitting at the exact levels that previously acted as support, and although it might be obvious to most traders … I expect another bounce as a result.  Over the past year, anytime the market got to this level … we usually were at the bottom and a new up-move began, but time will tell if the pattern from last year continues here.

One very unexpected situation in today’s market that is unlike the previous declines over the past year.  The VIX has been quite tame over the past week, which is odd for sure.  We do not use the VIX in our trading decisions, but I do monitor it for my own confirmation since it is so widely watched in the market.  I have discussed the VIX in the past, it is considered a good way to measure the sentiment of the market players and a good gauge of fear in the market.  With little movement during the current decline, it would imply that investors are NOT concerned, which indicates complacency.  Is this good or bad, time will tell??

Resnn has been in cash most of the week.  Our ‘One’ and ‘Medium’ term strategies began the week fully in cash, and stayed out of the market all week.  Our longer term strategy finally had its’ sell signal on Monday, so we moved that strategy fully to cash on Monday afternoon as well.  With all of three of our strategies exiting the market, it is no surprise that we had such a decline over the past two days.  This confluence of signals is a bit alarming for sure.

For now, we sit on the sidelines in the safety of cash.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 3/28/2014

This week was a bit nasty, with the leading and smaller cap stocks (Nasdaq and IWM) taking heavy losses continuing the month long decline that started in early March.  Larger (safer) stocks are doing much better although most are still not profitable, just staying flat for the same time period. 

This rotation to larger companies is fairly normal when declines occur or when fear that a larger decline is mounting, because the large players move their money from riskier positions to more defensive positions.  This week as an example, we saw the BioTech companies get hammered while utility and telecom companies did quite well.

I have commented on this defensive rotation in the past.  Many times it is a precursor to an impending larger drop in the near future.  Mutual funds and most hedge funds are unable to move their assets out of the market even if they wanted to.  They are literally forced to stay invested by their charter, which means that their investors are unfortunately not protected during large drops in the market.  So, to minimize the negative impact, they try to find safer alternatives in the market or high dividend paying investments that tend to weather corrections better.  These ‘safer investments’ still drop when markets correct, but their declines are usually less extreme or the dividends paid help offset the capital loss that occurs.  I actually spent some time on this interesting phenomenon in my upcoming book, entitled “Buy and Hold Hope” due out in just a few months.

You probably have noticed our accounts over the past two weeks have been slowly lowering their exposure in the market, moving more and more assets into cash.  Both “the One” and our medium term strategy have exited completely, with the longer term strategy still invested fully.  I always find it interesting when the different strategies start moving in step, verifying in a sense the need to be cautious right now.

It is interesting to note that the S&P has experienced very little loss from the high made earlier this month, in fact it is less than 1% off the top, yet the Nasdaq has fallen over 5%.  All of the indexes have basically made no money year to date.  With the Dow, Nasdaq and Russell 2000 in negative territory and the NYSE and S&P500 barely putting in a profit (less than 0.5%).  In fact most stocks have made little money since before thanksgiving last year, moving sideways instead.  This sideways movement (or consolidation) isn’t abnormal after such a strong rise in 2013 and in fact is healthy.  Granted, if money doesn’t start moving in to the market soon, it can imply a larger decline is coming.  So far, things are holding up and the current decline is mooted.

Regardless of the outcome, we will continue to monitor and protect your accounts.  Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 3/21/2014

A fairly dull week in the market although today certainly was a little nasty with the market making a downside reversal.  We started the day flirting with new highs (on the S&P only) and then ended closing at the absolute lows of the day, with the Nasdaq and Leaders being hit particularly hard.  From the start of the year most stocks have made very little if any upward movement.  We are in a consolidation (sideways movement), which can be healthy for a longer term move, if we can regain a leading position.

For now we wait and see if the markets can keep acting well.  We lightened our margin position in our ‘the One’ strategy slightly, although we are still on margin.  The other strategies still are fully invested.

Not much new to discuss in the market this week … we are just in a holding pattern waiting for the market to make a decision as to which way it wants to go.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 3/14/2014

We find ourselves again in a declining market with the Dow, NYSE and S&P500 all in negative territory for the year (again) and IWM and QQQ (small caps and technology focused ETFs) not far above the breakeven point.

For our ‘the One’ strategy, we started the week at 100% (no margin use) and lowered our exposure mid week to 75% invested.  The market is starting to look weak again, although I think we are very close to another bounce up from here.  We have dropped a bit too much in the past week to not get some rally attempt.

Our longer term strategies are still both fully invested and are waiting for more signs of weakness in order to warrant an exit.  With a bounce (up) overdue, I would assume we will not get to this exit point in the coming week.

The market is definitely looking a bit more shaky than it did over the previous three weeks.  Down days having significantly higher volume than up days, and the down days have larger price movement ~ fear is creeping in.  More importantly, I am starting to see many individual stocks breaking apart, particularly the previous leaders.  As I have mentioned in the past, leaders ‘lead’, so if they are falling apart … it isn’t too much of a stretch that that rest of the market will follow.

Volatility remains inflated which drives the fear card, mostly driven by news events including China’s production numbers and the Ukraine situation.  And as I mentioned last week, market sentiment is still overly bullish, which as ‘secondary indicator’ is not reliable enough to use as a trading signal, but should serve as a warning sign of a potential problem down the road.

I expect to have a resolution in the coming week, whether we reverse and move back to new highs OR continue the downward slide … as we are close to the level where a bounce should occur, and if it doesn’t then I expect to see further downside quickly.  Of course, whichever way the market direction goes, we will focused on protecting your investments.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 3/07/2014

Another productive week for the market.  As you see above, we exited margin and went back to just 100% invested.  For those of you that have do not have margin accounts, there was no change in your allocation; you were fully invested at the start of the week and you are fully invested at the end. 

As you have heard me say before, margin use should only be used in opportune times when the market indicators are all aligning nicely.  Since being on margin increases the risk on your account substantially, we only want to use it sparingly.  So … with the increased volatility that we have seen this week mostly as a result of the Ukraine situation, I feel it is best to remain off margin for the near term.  We are still fully invested (100%), and I still feel the market is acting very healthy, just took some of the risk off the table.  Protecting your account from decline will always be our number one goal, paramount to generating profit.

Looking at the previous week, the market had a huge decline on Monday from the Ukraine uncertainty then bounced back on Tuesday completely erasing all the previous days’ losses.  Our analysis did not show dramatic selling pressure on Monday and so we did not feel any change was necessary in our accounts.  As the week has progressed we have seen an increase in selling although nothing that causes too much concern at this point.

The market continues to act fairly well with the only concern cropping up being that investors are starting to get complacent again.  Although we do not use market sentiment in our analysis, it is just something to note that when there is too much bullish conviction in the market it can lead to a pullback.  Market sentiment is a ‘secondary indicator’ which basically means that it isn’t reliable enough to use as a trading signal, but that it a warning sign of a potential problem down the road.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 2/28/2014

Another productive week for the market.  All in all, we spent the week consolidating (going sideways) with basically no gain or loss.  Given how elevated things are in the short term, this sideways movement is good action to see.  Especially given the fact that we have closed up 14 of the past 16 sessions … a pull-back would not be surprising and the fact that this is not occurring is definitely bullish.  Today in fact was a very good test as the market was down almost 1% intraday and it recovered to close down only 0.25%

As you can see above, we move back into the market on Monday afternoon on ‘the One’ strategy, which was the last strategy still out of the market.  So … we are fully invested at this stage.

The market is looking fairly ‘clean’ right now, my only concern is today’s high volume, volatile drop.  Ideally we don’t want to see steady rising and then a sharper than normal drop on heavy volume.  It shows that investors are quick to exit the second something skittish happens, which isn’t a healthy environment.  But given the complete reversal of the 7% drop in January, some of this is normal.  The short term traders have come out and are exerting influence on the market.  With that said, the fact that we did drop so much today and buyers came in and stabilized the market is definitely a good sign.   There’s no question that there is support for the market when tests occur during intraday drops.

Year to Date, the Nasdaq is the only real performer with a gain of approximately 3%.  The S&P, NYSE are barely above breakeven for the past 2 months and the Dow is still showing a loss.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com

Market Wrap - week ending 2/21/2014

The market had a productive week.  Although it basically ended flat to slightly down for the week, volatility seems to be calming down and the major indexes have regained important levels and seem to be holding above them with decent support.

We are still getting some strong intraday moves, but significantly less than we have had since the start of the year.  All the major indexes are still in the red for the year (except the Nasdaq, which is showing a slight gain), but if this stabilization continues, I would assume the general market will start making gains very soon.

Last week, I expressed my concern that the market recovered a bit too quickly, but with this week’s sideways consolidation I am less concerned about the quick drop and subsequent rise from the past few weeks.  If the market is being supported by buyers at this level, then we have little to be concerned about moving forward.

I really don’t have much concern at this stage.  If I were forced to name something that isn’t ideal, I would say that the smaller companies are less favored right now than the midsized … which just implies that the large institutional investors are putting their money in larger (i.e. more stable) positions.  Given the large run up last year, this doesn’t surprise me that some caution is occurring.

All seems good in the market, given its’ protective nature our flagship strategy just needs a little more time for the volatility to calm more before we get in.  I would be surprised if we are not fully invested in the market before the middle of next week.  If things progress, we will most likely be entering in our “the One” strategy in a day or two.  Our other two strategies entered  two weeks ago and are sitting on a bit of profit, but nothing significant as of yet. 

For now, we hold and wait for the market to continue its’ consolidation and hopefully its’ previous uptrend.

Hope you have a wonderful and safe weekend.

Respectfully,

Randall Mauro

Resnn Investments, LLC

http://resnnInvestments.com